Ukraine submits Crimean draft resolution to UN

Ukraine's Permanent Representative to the United Nations Volodymyr Yelchenko during the Third Committee of the 71st session of the UN General Assembly submitted to the delegates the draft resolution "Situation of human rights in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol," according to the UN News Center.

"I have the honour to submit the draft resolution entitled 'Situation of human rights in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol.' The draft resolution is based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, international human rights treaties and other relevant international instruments and declarations,"Yelchenko said.

38 delegations became co-authors of the draft resolution.

The document proposes to condemn human rights abuses, discriminatory measures and practices by Russian occupation authorities against residents of the temporarily occupied territory of Crimea, including the Crimean Tatars and Ukrainians, and persons belonging to other ethnic and religious groups.

The draft requests the UN Secretary-General to seek ways and means to ensure safe and unhindered access to Crimea of the existing regional and international mechanisms to monitor the human rights situation.

The preamble of the draft refers to the condemnation of the temporary occupation of the territory of Ukraine by the Russian Federation – the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol, and confirms the non-recognition of its annexation.

Russian Representative to the United Nations Evgeniy Zagaynov said that "the project is one-sided." "The project completely ignores the unilateral consequences for the inhabitants of Crimea from the actions of the Ukrainian authorities,"the Russian delegate said. He also argues that "the project is non-objective and biased" and said that his delegation would vote against the draft of the resolution.

Ukrainian delegation said that the draft resolution would be put to a vote in the Third Committee of the UN General Assembly on November 15.

It should be noted that the Third Committee deals with social and humanitarian themes. Its agenda includes items relating to the protection of human rights.

All member countries of the UN General Assembly participate in the work of all six main committees – representatives of 193 countries, as well as observers from the State of Palestine and the Holy See (Vatican).

Draft resolutions and decisions, which are prepared and adopted in committee by consensus or by vote, are then transmitted for their final approval in the plenary Assembly. As a rule, in the plenary meetings, the draft resolutions adopted by the Main Committees shall be approved without significant changes and almost with the same results of the vote.